How I Planned a Fun Baby Shower – not full of lame games

After the gender reveal, next comes the baby shower! Actually, quite awhile after the gender reveal! Our reveal was on November 27th, and shower in March, the week before I went on maternity leave. To check out our gender reveal check out this post.

Okay, don’t hate me I’m not a huge fan of the typical baby showers. You know the ones with chocolate melted in diapers and hats covered in gift bows. They’re just not my cup of tea.

So when it came to organizing and planning my shower – which yes I did take a huge part in. I was set on making this something that would be fun. A girlfriend of mine, Julie, helped me with running around, weeding out the good ideas from the not so awesome and pretty well everything leading up to it. She was a huge help. Thank you Julie!!

Shopping for the shower…

Purchasing for the party started on the Thursday before, I know. I’m insane. However we pulled it off. Thursday we did most of the buying, especially the guest favors as we were DIY-ing them. Friday we did the last of the buying and got our mani/pedi’s for the day before going out for dinner. Saturday all we had to do was decorate and setup. Multiple lists helped it all come together, brain dumping was a huge help. It is my favorite, so customizable and easy to use. A list was made for food, decor, guest favors, and any miscellaneous things like buying myself an outfit.

First part of advice, if you have big decor plans or things that need a lot of preparation, please start awhile in advance. I’m talking weeks – not days before like I did. Luckily most of my plans were all on my Pinterest board and I was able to reference back. This is a board that I had been building since before little man was even conceived much less in the planning stages. Not saying you need to be compiling for years but when it comes down to the last bit before the party at least you have resources right!?

Activities, themes and food, oh my…

Some people choose to theme their whole party, that’s fine! If you’re into that go for it! For myself I just wanted it simple. Blue and white, less fuss, and let’s face it less psycho pregnant lady running around town looking for duck memorabilia. If you want to theme out your shower you will want to start much further in advance than we did, trust me you are going to have a really hard time finding that perfect Tiffany blue chevron table cloth with matching boxes two days out.

If you are looking for original shower game ideas why not check this out. It’s like Cards Against Humanity, but for parents! It was a huge hit at my shower and was able to take up a fair amount of time. I highly suggest it! We also did the “guess the puree” game, which is pretty self explanatory. You pick up random baby foods, cover or remove the label, have everyone taste them and write down their guesses. Also, if you would like to save money on guest favors, do a raffle! You could do this a few different ways. One ballot per game won, one ballot per pack of diapers, get creative!

Julie and I did still make other favors such as bath bombs, lip balms and a few other things. We did do a draw at the end of the night for a gift full of more pampering things along with of course, wine!

When it comes to food, we kept it light. We had a tray of wraps, fruit, veggies and various sweets. It was more than we needed but at least what we had for leftovers were healthy and something we wanted to eat the next day. Our drink on the other hand was not healthy, but that’s okay, life’s all about balance right? It was pretty simple, blue raspberry Kool Aid mixed with water and elder flower sparkling water. We basically mixed to taste.

Invitation mode…

I made the invite on Facebook about a month in advance. Most of my friends and family live out of province and if they were planning on sending anything, I wanted them to be in the loop. Also, I didn’t want them to feel like they weren’t thought of. Another reason why I started the event so early was that I had three registries, yes three, I will get into why later. Let’s face it a lot of people like to online shop now and sometimes shipping can leave you hanging so the more notice the better.

Most people add only their prospective guests to the list but word of advice, add your husband too, even if he’s not attending. He may have some people to invite for you that your baby brain forgot. Or he could have people asking about registry info. Weather he’s involved or not at least the info is there for him to utilize or not. His choice, you did your part.

Baby shower registries…

Three registries, I must be crazy. That or I expect everyone to spoil the hell out of me – I mean Peyton, right!? I deserve it! Correction, Peyton deserves it haha. Joking aside. My registries were through Walmart, Babies R Us and Amazon.

Now I know it sounds crazy to have multiple lists, however hear me out. We all like to shop around for the best prices am I right? Some people like to shop in store, some online. With having three I was able to price compare and allow my guests near and far to do so as well. Along with being able to physically go into either of the stores if that was the way they choose.

Links to all of my registries were on the Facebook group so that everyone had access at all times. If someone purchased something from one of the registries that was on another I would simply delete it from the other(s), this way I would avoid getting 6 Diaper Genie’s and 80 of the same grooming kit. Now keep in mind not all registries are created equal, some you get a notification email, some you don’t. I would check all three daily or every other day because I’m insane but hey, at least I don’t have a billion Bumbo’s right!?

Why registries are necessary…

Yet another reason why I think registries are important is because it’s a great way for people to see what kinds of things you need. What I mean by that is, if you are breastfeeding, chances are you will have accessories for that. If you are bottle feeding, same thing. Not everyone takes the time to ask, which is totally fine.

Think of your registry as your theme, a theme to the mom you want to be. Also, don’t fill it up with all toys and such, your baby will get enough toys in due time. A registry is for needs. Think about different price points for multiples, such as swaddles, hooded towels and blankets. Better yet, register for diapers! I know that sounds weird, but think about it… One thing I would suggest to leave out of your registry is clothes. It’s a waste of space in there and frankly you’re going to receive a ton. When in doubt, people will always buy you baby clothes.